5 Tips for Caring for a Loved One with Dementia

this post answers the following questions
1. What are the three things you need to learn while taking care of a person with dementia?
2. Why avoid changes when taking care of a person with dementia?
3. Why use activities to stimulate the brain of a person having dementia?
4. How can you help a person with dementia make their life easier?
5. Why you should also take care of yourself while taking care of a person with dementia?

Dementia is a terrible disease that affects not only the victims, but their loved ones. If you’ve been given the job of caring for someone with dementia, there are steps you can take to make the job even easier. Here are just five tips for caring for a loved one with dementia.

Be Patient, Understanding, and Supportive

The job of taking care of a loved one with dementia can be stressful. However, you need to learn to be patient, understanding, and supportive. This means accepting the changes that are happening to your loved one. This means be understanding when he forgets your name or other important events in his life. You also need to be supportive when they do remember things and do what you can to make the changes in his life easier to accept.

Avoid Changes

It can be hard to remember things when everything keeps changing. If possible, you should care for the person in her own home. This will give her a chance to remember things and make it even easier to do things for herself, because the actions were part of her daily routine.

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Use Activities to Stimulate the Brain

Those suffering from dementia may see a slowing of the disease through activities that stimulate the brain. Games, crafts, puzzles, etc are a wonderful way to spend the hours caring for your loved one. You may even want to make everyday tasks into a game to encourage your loved one to eat or practice proper hygiene.

Make Things Easier

If your loved one is still living on his own, and in the first stages of dementia, you can do things that will make his life easier. The use of appliances on timers, easy to read schedules, timer alerts, etc can make it easier for your loved to care for himself. You can even make communicating easy by using words that are easy to understand, speaking clearly, and using shorter sentences.

Take Care of Yourself

Last, but not least, it is important to take care of yourself when caring for someone with dementia. It can be very stressful, especially if you are taking care of your loved one 24 hours a day. Having someone take your place, even for an hour a day, can make a world of difference.

Dementia is difficult for everyone involved. However, there are things you can do to make it easier. Whether it’s avoiding unnecessary changes or taking care of yourself so that you’re in the best physical and emotional condition, there are steps you can take.

About the Author: Darryl Saine took care of his mother when she was ill with dementia and knows how tough it can be. He’s now a patient health advocate who enjoys researching common health conditions, candida, yeast infection treatment options, and generalized anxiety.